Chapter 9
The woman brushed past Beth lightly, as if Beth hadn’t been there at all. Her eyes were fixed solely on Debert.
“What brings you to such a dangerous place?”
“Nexus’s fate lies here. How could I not come?”
Her flushed face, looking up at him from his chest, might have been endearing, but Debert merely took a step back.
Debert’s eyes shifted to Beth, who was still standing a little distance away. As she noticed his gaze, Beth quickly turned her back, embarrassed that she’d stayed there so thoughtlessly. Her ears turned bright red.
As Debert watched Beth retreat with the basket in hand, he returned his attention to the woman before him.
Blonde hair and blue eyes. A face that resembled someone he knew.
“Oh, you’ve got blood here.”
The woman reached out towards Debert’s face, the artificial scent of flowers growing stronger as she drew nearer.
“Ah.”
Debert reflexively avoided her touch, leaving her hand suspended in mid-air. In that fleeting moment, the woman’s sunny, cheerful expression turned cold.
But her blue eyes quickly curved into a gentle crescent before Debert could notice.
“I’m sorry, Debert. I forgot that you dislike things like this.”
The woman lowered her eyes apologetically and took a step back from Debert. Any man watching her would have scolded Debert for failing to appreciate the delicate attention of such a lovely lady.
Debert roughly wiped his cheek with his still-damp hand and moved past the woman.
“I’ll guide you to where Arthur is.”
“Thank you.”
Her red lips smoothly accepted his words, and her face relaxed as she followed him.
* * *
“Oh my, Raphnel!”
“It’s been a while! It’s been too long.”
Diana Molly, who had been checking the chart, lit up as she welcomed Raphnel. Raphnel, too, embraced the duchess as if she were greeting a close relative.
In the ward, where wounded soldiers lay in bedraggled states, Raphnel, dressed in a pristine white cape coat, looked like someone from another world.
“It’s dangerous here. How did you manage to get here?”
“I came here knowing full well that the road I was on was occupied territory. And…”
Raphnel glanced at Arthur. His expression was unusually stern.
How amusing. Raphnel smiled sweetly at Arthur.
“My brother was injured. How could I not come? And there’s someone I’ve been wanting to see.”
“Oh, really?”
Mrs. Molly looked at Debert in confusion at Rapnel’s blunt answer, but Debert seemed to not care as if it was someone else’s business.
“I’d love to have a meal together, but I need to head back before sunset, so it’s a shame.”
“No, I plan to stay the night here. If the ladies of Nexus are working so hard here, I can’t just sit back in Wayne and act like there’s no war.”
“Raphnel!”
Arthur couldn’t contain himself and shouted.
“You shouldn’t shout in a place where patients need to rest.”
Raphnel gently tapped his chest, as if calming him.
“Let’s have a meal together with the four of us.”
“That sounds good, but we’re a bit busy right now. We’ll meet later, Raphnel.”
When their conversation was cut short by people calling out to Mrs. Molly here and there, Arthur clenched his teeth and muttered softly.
“I need to speak with you.”
Arthur grabbed Raphnel’s wrist roughly and dragged her outside the hospital.
Raphnel followed quietly until they reached the back door, where she jerked her hand away irritably. The annoyance on her pale face was stark, making it hard to believe she was the same person who had looked at Debert so fondly.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Raphnel’s shrill voice cut into Arthur.
“What’s your game? Why are you here? Do you even know where you are?”
“I didn’t come to see you, so stop making a fuss.”
“Does His Majesty know?”
“Do you think His Majesty cares about someone like me? He couldn’t care less who I met or where I went. Stop worrying about such nonsense.”
“Please, just live quietly!”
The veins in Arthur’s neck bulged as if they might burst. But Raphnel’s voice remained cold and calm, in stark contrast to her brother’s agitation.
“Do you want me to live quietly in the palace, like Mother did, and die unnoticed?”
“Don’t say that.”
Arthur’s gaze wavered.
“Then don’t lecture me about being quiet or anything else. I’ll carve my own path.”
“Why Debert? There are plenty of other fine nobles. If you want, you could even marry a foreign prince. I’ll speak to His Majesty for you.”
Raphnel sighed deeply, looking at Arthur. Her eyes were full of pity.
And that’s why he is just a sheltered prince.
Raphnel’s sharp finger poked Arthur’s shoulder.
“I’m going to become the top woman in Nexus. Not the second or third, but the first.”
Arthur looked into her eyes, which were so much like his own. Her blue eyes were filled with venom.
What on earth turned her into this?
“Unless you plan to become emperor and make me empress, stop worrying about whether I want Debert or some stray dog from the hills.”
With that, Raphnel left.
Arthur watched her walk away. Someone seemed to recognise her from a distance and waved. His sister returned the greeting with an angelic smile.
“Hah.”
Arthur felt a suffocating frustration close around his chest.
* * *
Back at the hospital, Raphnel stood in the middle of the busy ward, as if waiting for someone to notice her. Diana Molly, unable to stand the sight, asked Debert to show her around the hospital before she returned to her tent.
She had looked for Arthur, but he was nowhere to be found, and the nurses were too busy to leave their posts. There was no other option. After all, they couldn’t let a princess wander around unescorted.
Debert guided Raphnel through the hospital, although there wasn’t much to see. It was absurd to think about introducing anything in a military hospital, but he followed Diana Molly’s request without complaint.
Raphnel, who had been following silently, suddenly stopped.
She stood on her tiptoes to peer through the small window in the iron door, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.
“What’s in here?”
Beyond the small glass window, someone lay like a corpse, their shoulders and legs wrapped in bandages.
It was the isolation ward for the Imperial Guard, where Debert had caused a scene just before Raphnel arrived.
“Oh dear, that must hurt a lot.”
Raphnel looked up at Debert with an innocent expression, but her face was cunning, as if demanding an explanation.
She had already figured it out.
In a battlefield where they couldn’t afford to lose even one more soldier, isolating someone and stationing guards at the door meant only one thing: either an enemy or a spy.
“He’s a spy.”
Debert’s voice was dry.
“How pathetic. Betraying Nexus… Are you planning to execute him?”
Raphnel’s voice held no trace of fear or hesitation.
Only then did Debert, who had been staring straight ahead, look at the princess. Unlike Beth, who had gone pale with shock at Debert’s actions, Raphnel seemed oddly excited.
“Probably.”
“That’s the right thing to do. It’s necessary to maintain military discipline. I do admire your decisiveness.”
Raphnel smiled slightly at Debert before walking a few steps ahead. Unlike her, Debert’s pace noticeably slowed. That insignificant woman, Beth, was somehow getting on his nerves.
When she had seen him at the back gate, she had stopped, her face exhausted yet her black eyes still filled with vivid resentment.
Why had he called out her name then? Was it to make some pathetic excuse? But for what reason?
Sensing that Debert wasn’t following, Raphnel turned to look back. Whatever thoughts he was lost in, his eyes were focused on the empty air, not on her.
The corners of Raphnel’s lips, which had stayed elegantly curved during her time with Debert, now twisted subtly.
Fine. This is enough. Raphnel was growing tired of dragging along someone as uninterested as Debert.
“I should visit the nurses’ quarters. Thank you for guiding me, Debert.”
It was only when Raphnel, unable to tolerate it any longer, bid him farewell that Debert finally looked at her. He nodded formally, his manner utterly businesslike, as if he had never been distracted.
“How insolent.”
In the empty hallway, Raphnel’s whispered words of frustration echoed.
* * *
“Ines.”
“Raphnel?”
Ines, who had been about to change out of her stained nurse’s uniform, looked up in surprise. Ines was one of the noble girls who had played with Raphnel when they were younger.
“What brings you here?”
“I heard everyone’s been working hard, and my brother’s injured too.”
Raphnel, looking downcast, sat on the edge of a bed.
“I’m planning to stay just for tonight. Is that okay?”
“Of course, it’s fine. But everyone’s busy, so you might be on your own. Is that alright?”
“That’s fine.”
Raphnel looked around the modest room.
The old beds were crammed together, and instead of wardrobes, each person had a basket by their bed for personal belongings. Everyone was too busy with their duties to even notice the princess, let alone greet her.
Ines was the only noble girl who had managed to endure the conditions of a field hospital. It was no wonder that the commoner nurses, who were preoccupied with survival, didn’t recognise the princess.
“Would you introduce me?”
Raphnel spoke kindly.
“Ines! Tonight I can finish what I couldn’t do yesterday..”
Dixie burst into the room, full of energy, but fell silent when she saw the unexpected guest. Beth, who had been following Dixie, also noticed the sudden quiet and glanced at Ines.
“This is Princess Raphnel. She’ll be staying with us for a day.”
“Oh, I-I’m honoured to meet you, Your Highness.”
Dixie hastily grabbed her skirt and curtsied. Raphnel, still sitting on the bed, simply watched.
“This is Dixie Coleman, the youngest daughter of Mr. Coleman, who runs a big business at the docks.”
Raphnel nodded as if she understood. The name sounded familiar, perhaps from a news bulletin.
In Nexus, which was rapidly modernising, tycoons like Coleman were becoming another social class.
But they’re still nothing but low-born blood. Raphnel swallowed her scorn and spoke.
“I assumed you were from a count’s or marquis’s family since you and Ines are so close. Do you all socialise without regard for rank?”
Dixie’s face turned red at Raphnel’s pointed remark. Though her tone was gentle, the meaning was clear: she was questioning whether they disregarded social hierarchy.
Raphnel’s eyes, unaffected by the discomfort her words had caused, turned towards Beth, who had followed behind.
“This is Beth Janes. We attended nursing school together.”
‘Beth.’
The woman Debert had called out to.
“Have I seen you at any social events?”
“Oh, Beth isn’t from a noble family. But she was the top student throughout nursing school. Isn’t that impressive?”
Ines quickly added a compliment, but Raphnel wasn’t listening.
“Don’t you have a tongue of your own? Ines is speaking on your behalf.”
No tongue? An awkward silence fell over the room.
Ines was taken aback, not knowing what to do, while Dixie, who had been cowed into silence, stared at Ines with a thoroughly displeased expression, as if to say, ‘What’s wrong with her?’
Raphnel’s icy blue eyes took in the faces in the room, one by one.
Surely not.
Her crimson velvet lace gloves moved to her lips.
“Oh, can you truly not speak?”
The smile that curled her lips was enough to hide the scornful amusement in her expression.
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TRANSLATOR:
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